May 23th Internship Blog: Setting Up an Internship


While my internship begins on June 2nd, I do have something to discuss for this week's post. For this post, I will cover the process it has taken to reach this point in my internship.

This journey began back in February when I applied for two internship positions. One position was for the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and the other was for the Orange County Regional History Center (OCRHC). After waiting for a couple weeks, I figured that I did not get the position at either place. Soon after I thought that two emails appeared in my inbox. The Smithsonian told me that I did not get the position. Meanwhile, the OCRHC asked me to meet over Zoom for an interview. I met for a brief interview over Zoom a week later, and after that I received an offer to join their team as a Summer Educator.

It turned out that my job experience at the Universal Orlando Resort translated well to the potential challenges of being a Summer Educator. An obvious requirement involves being able to work with children. Considering my job entails working at a theme park and conversing with guests, I have had practice communicating with children. A potential area of concern I did not expect came when my interviewer asked me if I can handle a chaotic environment like a classroom. Thankfully, working crowded events like Universal's Halloween Horror Nights as a survey taker at the front gate meant I am used to massive crowds of people and lots of noise. The hardest question I was thrown was when she asked me to describe the color blue to a blind person. I answered that the color was enveloping and impossible to ignore, but at the same time peaceful and calming like the presence of a loved one.

I thought once the interview was completed and the offer was in hand that I simply needed to wait for my start date. What I did not expect was the extensive amount of paperwork required to work in a government position. Over the course of two weeks, I have submitted a copy of my driver's license, social security card, birth certificate, and two forms I filled out for the museum. In addition to that, I also needed to pass a background check including information about my previous driver's license in my old home state of Georgia. I did not realize how much effort is involved with getting started with a career in a state position. This especially surprised me since my internship is an unpaid position with the OCRHC. I did not need to provide this much information with my current job at the Universal Orlando Resort.

After 2 weeks of various correspondences and emailed documents, we got to set up a training day for this Saturday May 24th. This training will be the focus of my next blog post. Thinking back on all of the work I have gone through to get to this point, I understand why the public history field can take a lot of effort to work in. If this much paperwork is needed for a singular unpaid intern, I can't imagine how much paperwork goes into getting funding, proposing new projects, and modifying existing ones. I hope my internship provides me the opportunity to learn how to properly educate and coordinate public classes like the ones I am supposed to assist with.

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